This invention relates to culinary implements and more particularly to a pan for baking taco shells and for holding the baked shells for filling and serving them.
Tacos are made from tortillas that are first fried in a U-shaped configuration to make a taco shell. These are sold in a soft and flexible form because they would be too brittle otherwise. When ready for use they are laid on a flat pan and baked until crisp. Unfortunately, they tend to close up when laid on their side during baking, so that they hold little filling and may crack when spread open by the filling. To fill the crisp taco shell, it is held in one hand and filled by the other hand with pieces of lettuce, onion, cheese, meat, sauce and the like. Once filled, it must be held in the hand while eaten to avoid spilling the contents.
Utensils have been developed for cooking the shells while maintaining the shape as exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 3,705,042 to Muse. U.S. Pat. No. 4,004,501 to Guerrero shows a taco holding tray for holding the shells upright for filling and serving. A series of parallel troughs have walls conforming to the shell shape. The walls are short enough so that the top of the shells extend above them. This enables the user to grasp the two top edges of the filled shells and lift the shell up for eating. If this is done with one hand, the two edges must be squeezed together to lift it. This may cause the shell to crack if it is brittle. Her tray has gutters along both ends of the troughs to hold any materials spilling from the troughs.
It would be useful to provide a pan that could be used both for baking the shells while keeping them open and for holding the shells while filling.
It would also be useful if the pan could provide means for conveniently lifting the taco with one hand without breakage.